SpaceX made its long-awaited stock market debut on Friday, June 12, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. The company priced its shares at $135 each — described by The Verge as a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer — before opening at $150, an 11% first-day pop, according to TechCrunch.
Shares climbed further from there. According to CNBC, SpaceX gained 17% as trading commenced, pushing the rocket company's valuation above $2 trillion. Techmeme pegged the market cap at roughly $1.9 trillion at the $150 opening price, placing SpaceX among the six most valuable U.S. companies.
The wealth effect on CEO Elon Musk was immediate and historic. TechCrunch reports that the IPO boosted Musk's paper wealth past $1 trillion, making him the first person in history to cross that threshold. The Verge noted his fortune now exceeds the entire economies of countries like Ireland and Sweden.
TechCrunch called this "the biggest initial public offering ever." Sequoia partner Sean Maguire, speaking to CNBC, compared SpaceX today to Nvidia three years ago and said he plans to hold his shares "forever."
Meanwhile, a wave of newly minted SpaceX millionaires is already reshaping the wealth management industry, according to CNBC, with employees bringing unconventional approaches — including whiteboarding sessions and AI tools — to managing sudden windfalls.
Why it matters: SpaceX's debut marks a rare moment when a company that reshaped an entire industry — commercial spaceflight — becomes accessible to everyday investors, while simultaneously vaulting its founder into a category of wealth that has never existed before.